You only know what I want you to
I know everything you don't want me to
Oh your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine
You think your dreams are the same as mine
Oh I don't love you but I always will
Oh I don't love you but I always will
Oh I don't love you but I always will
I always will
-Poison & Wine by The Civil Wars
The bell at the bank annoyed Betty as it cheerfully announced her entrance. She felt the stares from the cashiers as she crossed across the room and headed towards the back offices. They use to smile and greet her, but now they just stood silent as she passed. She wondered if it was because they all thought she was a murderer or because they knew what she was here for.
It had been some time since she had been there. After she had gotten out, she couldn't bring herself to come do what needed to be done, but here she was now, ready to close her account and apologize for going back on her word.
She looked into Mrs. Abbott's office and noticed she wasn't in her office; her shoulders slumped as she sat down in the wooden chairs just outside it. Just what she wanted, to delay the act even longer. She just wanted to get it over with. As humiliating as it was to default on her loan, the idea of not coming by to apologize for mucking up her good standing financial credibility seemed wrong to her. Plus, she was ready to put a fork in the pipe dream of owning a home one-day. It was time to face reality and the judgmental glare of Mrs. Abbott and admit defeat.
Betty ignored the creaking of the chair as she shifted uncomfortably and looked across the room to the big window where she could see Gladys standing outside having a smoke. She sighed heavily. It seemed even the perpetuity optimistic Gladys knew this was something she needed to do alone.
"Why, Ms. McRae, what a pleasant surprise!"
Betty looked up, taken back at the casual greeting as the female banker approached her.
"Um, hi," she said, standing up nervously. She gripped her purse and squared her shoulders as she turned to face the other woman. "I'm here about my loan."
"Of course you are," the woman smiled as she held her arm out, gesturing Betty to step inside her office. "Please, come on in."
Betty nodded as she passed her by and sat heavily in the chair in front of the banker's desk. Here comes the judgment, she thought to herself. She wondered how long it would take for the "you need a husband to take care of you" speech to be trotted out.
"Before we get down to business, tell me, how was your trip?" The older woman asked as she rounded her desk and sat down behind it.
"Trip?" Betty repeated, blinking hard in confusion.
"Yes, I hope it was a good one. It was awfully smart of you to have your friend drop off your loan payment every week. You've almost saved up enough for that home now."
"My friend?" Betty asked, dumbstruck.
"Yes, always so friendly, she said you were taking care of a sick relative. I trust they're better now?"
"My friend did that, did she?" Betty said as things were beginning to make sense. She turned and looked out the big window again where Gladys patiently waited outside. No wonder she didn't want to come inside. She didn't want to be there when Betty found out she'd been paying her loan without her knowledge and blew her top over it. It sounded just like her to stick her nose where it didn't belong and throw her money around to save her tail once again.
"Oh, Witham, what am I going to do with you now?" Betty muttered as she watched the other girl flick her cigarette away outside.
"Miss Gladys Witham, the one who came with you the first time?" Mrs. Abbott asked, shaking her head. "No, I don't ever recall her coming by. I would remember that face considering you can't open a kitchen pantry without seeing it these days."
Turning back, Betty's brow furrowed as a cold recognition slid through her.
"Let's see here," Mrs. Abbott said as she opened a desk drawer and pulled out a leather bound bankers book. She placed it on her desk and began flipping through it. "It was another girl who had the most beautiful hair… Ah, here we go!"
She flipped the book around to Betty's side of the desk. Betty held her breath as she leaned in to look, but let it out slowly as she saw the pages were filled with receipts with her bank account number and the same initials signed by it over and over again. The last one signed just three days ago.
The banker's nonchalant voice broke the silence.
"Do the initials K.A. mean anything to you?"
Kate closed her door behind her and climbed onto the bed to sit Indian style in front of Reggie. She was glad to have a night off from the nightclub and even more happy that she wouldn't have to spend it alone in her room. She felt like things were beginning to get better in her life. After the awful events of her mother's failed dinner, Gladys began coming by to visit her at the night club or to sit with her on Sunday afternoons as she worked on that weeks sewing. The tight weight she had felt pressing down on her chest seemed to feel just a bit lighter and for that, she was grateful and, more importantly, hopeful. Maybe life was starting to get back to normal, well almost normal. There were still some oddities in her life.
"So tell me again why we have to hide away in my room to play cards?" Kate asked as she watched the other girl shuffle the deck of cards in her hands.
"We're not hiding. I thought it might be nice to have a quiet game just the two of us."
Kate smiled knowingly as Reggie dealt the cards between them.
"You just don't want to play with Moira cause you always loose to her."
"No one can be that good at gin rummy! I swear she cheats. Last week, I lost half the rent when she went on a bender."
"So is this like a wounded ego thing?" Kate teased.
"More like self-preservation," Reggie laughed, looking down at her cards. "Now come on Red, lets go, I've got rent money to score back."
Kate smiled and shook her head as she looked at her hand. She knew her friend really didn't need the rent money; Mrs. Corbett would never throw the girl out for it. She just used it as an excuse to spare them both from of another lonely night. Just as Kate was about to make the first move, her door flew open causing both girls to jump as it slammed against Kate's dresser with enough force to shake the walls of the room. Betty barged in as Reggie yelped at the sudden intrusion.
"Jeez Louise, Betty!" Kate exclaimed, clutching her chest. "You scared the living daylights out of us."
"Yeah, McRae," Reggie scoffed, looking back at the blonde behind her with crazed wonder. "Way to shave a year off my life there."
"Shove it, Reggie." Betty gritted out.
"Betty!" Kate said, taken back by her former best friend's angry glare and attitude.
"You had no right to do this!" Betty yelled, pointing angrily at Kate.
"Wha…I don't...don't know…" Kate stuttered.
Betty cut her off, clinching the papers in her left hand. "You think you're helping? You're not. It was my business. Not yours. So do us both a favor and just stay the hell out of it!"
She then flung the papers at them and stormed out, slamming the door once more as the papers fluttered around the shocked girls. Reggie snatched one of the strips up as they landed in front of her. Kate immediately knew what they were. She had seen them every week for the past 6 months.
"Well, somebody's flipped her wig," Reggie said, looking over the paper in hand. "I mean, who does…"
Kate jumped up suddenly and followed Betty's hasty retreat across the hall as she flung Betty's door open and then barged into the other girl's room, slamming the door behind her.
"…that." Reggie finished, now alone in the room.
Kate stood just inside Betty's room. The furthest she had been inside it in months.
"I only did what I thought was best." Kate tried, her voice restrained as she tried to control her rising emotions.
"Yeah, aren't you always?" Betty retorted, pacing back in forth in front of her bed.
"Look, I was trying to respect your wishes…"
"Ha!" Betty mocked, turning back and forth sharply. "Wishes, well, Kate. Haven't you heard, if fishes were wishes, we'd all have a fry!"
"Betty, I was only trying…"
"I never asked you to pay my loan! That was my responsibility. I never asked for your help!"
Kate watched as Betty paced back and forth, never looking up as if she couldn't stand the sight of her standing in her room. She felt her cheeks burn as her own anger bubbled to the surface.
"I guess the view from this side of the road isn't so scenic now, is it?"
Betty stopped at the cold edge in Kate's voice and looked over at her finally.
"What the hell is that suppose to mean?"
"Having someone take something for you," She said, her voice low, but becoming stronger with each syllable. "Rob you of your choice. Your responsibility! No... no I wouldn't know anything about having to sit and watch someone do something for you that you never asked for!"
"It's not the same," Betty shrugged, turning to pace back and forth again.
Kate scoffed and shook her head.
"Are you mad because someone decided to save your tail… or because I was the one doing the saving for once?!"
Reggie came out of Kate's room and stopped in the hallway when she saw Gladys leaning against the wall leading to the foyer with her arms crossed. Gladys nodded her hello.
"Ruined card game," Reggie simply said, tilting her head to the room their friends had left them behind for. "You?"
"Dinner and a picture show."
Looking at the closed door where the increasingly louder voices began to drift from, Reggie turned to Gladys. "Is this the normal routine?"
"You mean the fireworks and show?" Gladys asked. "No, they usually have more of a ignore and avoid it style. They're just… it's…"
"Complicated?" Reggie finished for her. "Yeah, that's Red's usual party line."
Gladys watched as the other girl walked up to the closed door and turned her head to put her ear against it.
"Reggie, I don't think that's quite proper…"
"Shhh," Reggie whispered loudly, turning her head towards Gladys and listened more intently. "They just said your name."
"My name?" Gladys asked, standing straight. "Why on earth is my name coming into this…"
She quickly made her way beside Reggie and pressed her ear to the door.
"What does Gladys have to do with this?" Kate demanded.
"I'd expect this from her! She always thinks she can play the hero and save the day with a smile and the flash of Daddy Witham's money belt."
"And thank God for that or you'd still be sitting in a cell."
"Don't you mean both of us Kate? You sure didn't mind taking a Witham handout when it got you out of hot water!"
Kate's lips tightened at the harsh tone.
"I plan to repay her back one day for all she's done for me… for us!"
"Oh, just speak for yourself. And while you're at it, go and try your best with her. She's always itching to take up a charity case to boost her ego!"
"Well!" Gladys scoffed, whispering loudly to Reggie. "That was hardly called for!"
Reggie bit her lip to hide her smile as they both turned their attention back to the two on the other side of the door.
"I wasn't about to let you throw away your dream home because of me!"
"It wasn't your dream to protect in the first place!" Betty threw back.
"And it wasn't your punishment to take! Do you know what it's like… to know your best friend is going to hang for you? To carry that around every single day!"
"Can't say that I do seeing as though I was so busy taking the fall for you… so you could what… go sing at the Jewel Box and never show an ounce of care while I waited for that noose?"
"It was never like that. I never… you have no idea how much I cared… how much I've tried to do right by you!"
Betty stopped, something finally dawning on her as she looked around her room.
"My room…" she said, turning to Kate with fresh anger. "Vera and I were wrong... Gladys wasn't the one who saved it. She didn't talk Mrs. Gruton into keeping it free for me, did she?"
"I made sure your room would be open when you got out. Mrs. Gruton doesn't give a flip if you murdered my father or not… all she cares about is the 15-dollar weekly lodging payment and a decent incentive. I made sure you'd have a place to come back to."
"So you paid my loan fees, my room fees…" Betty said, her mind whirling as she thought of Kate working night and day the last several months. "…You've been killing yourself working every job under the sun all this time because of guilt? Oh, you shouldn't have Kate. You really shouldn't have."
"Why, because you've been doing such a glorious job of taking care of things yourself?"
Kate shook her head and looked down at the floor before walking towards Betty, stopping right in front of her, she looked up and locked eyes with the girl who was so close that she could feel her breath fan across her neck, sending chills down her arms.
"You think you're handling things so well," Kate said lowly. Betty's eyes flickered from the words coming out of her perfect mouth back to the eyes that seem to flare with every word she spoke. "You miss work and the days you do come in your either late, half drunk, or walk around like some robot. Mrs. Corbett doesn't even understand it, because you use to love working at VicMu. You were the first one on the streetcar to go in the mornings and the last one to leave the line at the end of the day. You loved making a difference. I know you, Betty. I know you use to love it."
"Yeah, well I use to love a lot of things." Betty muttered, turning her face to the side in order to break the connection Kate's eyes made with hers.
Kate felt the words cut deep, causing her to take a step back at their ugly truth.
"Yeah, I guess Arlene is enough to fill the void now, huh?"
"I think it's time you leave."
Vera walked around the corner and stepped in between the row of undergarments strewn across the hallway and found Gladys and Reggie pressed against Betty's door, listening carefully.
"What on earth…" She said with raised eyebrows.
"Shhh!" Both girls hushed in unison.
Vera looked to the room they were so focused on and heard the murmured voices of her two friends.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "Are those two crazy kids finally talking to each other again? It's about time!"
"I'm not sure talking would be the correct term," Gladys said from her spot by the door.
"Well, I don't care if they're hashing it out or planning their siege on Berlin," Vera replied. "A world where those two are talking again just seems to make life a little more bearable."
"Oh, oh!" Reggie said, shooing Gladys forward. "Here they come, scoot your caboose!"
Vera watched with amusement as both girls scrambled past the door and tried to look innocent as Reggie skidded to a stop and leaned against the wall, as if she'd been there the whole time, while Gladys suddenly found Ruby's underthings hanging on the line incredibly interesting. Vera turned back to the voices inside the room as Betty's door flew open.
"If you want to continue and waste your time… to throw the life away that you've worked so hard to build … by all means do!" Kate gritted out coming through the door. She turned one last time to Betty who had followed her to the door. "…this time it's all you though! It's on your dime!"
"Good! Glad you finally get that!" Betty replied harshly before slamming her door shut again.
Vera watched as Kate stomped across the hallway without even noticing the three of them watching her cross. She slammed her door shut behind her as well, sending another shock wave through the building. All three girls stood still as the boarding house fell into silence once more.
"Annnd the saga continues…" Vera sighed. Looking at the other two who seemed to be at a lost of words, she bid them a good night. "Well this gal needs her beauty sleep."
Gladys watched as Vera made her way down the hallway towards her room. She turned to Reggie and contemplated the night they just had.
"You know, I'm so starved I think I could eat a moose. How about we not let this night go to a complete waste and grab some grub?"
Reggie smiled and nodded her head, "I think Mrs. Rosa's Café stays open late these days for the red shift."
"Sounds like a plan."
Both girls started down the hallway, both knowing they had witnessed a lot that night.
Reggie turned and regarded Gladys beside her as they walked out. Before now, she hadn't much interaction with the high society girl.
"So Witham…." She started, as Gladys turned to her. "… just how rich are you?"
Gladys looked down at the shorter girl with surprise. "Pardon?"
"I'm just sayin' if you ever wanna play cards… spread the wealth by loosing…I could help with that," Reggie quipped.
Gladys laughter echoed down the hallway as they made their way towards the front door.
